Monday, June 25, 2018

We all love Arduino and look for cool ways to make new stuff with it.This post is dedicated to our Facebook Page fan AbdUllah Hanfy . Thank you for sharing ideas about new ways of using Arduino. If anyone has a new idea about using Arduino in a new or productive circuit don't hesitate to share or ask.This post is about Metal Detector Circuit. It's about using Arduino as the main controller for the Metal Detector.

I've searched the web and found many circuits of Metal Detectors. Some are as simple as built around the famous 555 timer IC and some are based on Arduino and others are so sophisticated with LCD touch screens.I believe in simplicity in electronic circuits. Here I'm introducing a fairly simple yet efficient Arduino Metal Detector.It's simple that it uses limited number of components. And it's efficient as it does its function in detecting metal in fail accuracy and giving visual and audible indications.I hope you like it. So let's get started.

Theory of operation

This Metal Detector operates using the self inductance in different metals. As the coil comes near a magnetic metal such as Iron, the coil inductance increases and as the coil comes near a non magnetic material such as Copper, the inductance decreases.As a rule of thumb, the detector is sensitive to objects at a distance or depth up to the radius of the coil. It is most sensitive to objects in which a current can flow in the plane of the coil, and the response will correspond to the area of the current loop in that object.The function of the circuit is continuous measurement of the coil impedance and determining the presence of metal of both types.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

I still remember the old days of early embedded systems kits and board. Those days where you had to make your own chips programming circuits because they were hard to find and too expensive.

You also had to wire your programmer on the circuit and then connect it to the PC using Parallel or Serial Ports.When things got advanced, those Parallel and Serial Ports became hard to find. Even ready made programmers and DIY programmers started to be pain in the neck as they only worked with legacy technology PCs and Laptops.

Then the next generation of programmers came and it supported the more advanced USB ports.Now you can program any chip with your USB programmer.And then came the Arduino. It started a new age of embedded systems. New kits were introduced and there became new way of programming embedded chips.Arduino made life much easier. Now you can make a DIY programmer for virtually any Microcontroller chip you like.Just build the circuit, connect it to Arduino and then program your chip at once.You can even make your circuit in Arduino Shield form that can fit on top of one of Arduino boards.Here is how you can program Attiny Microcontroller and make it a standalone Arduino on a chip. This Microcontroller as you know is from Atmel family and behaves exactly as Arduino.So if you program it with Arduino firmware you can have your own small footprint Arduino.

I've succeeded in building my first working wind turbine made of recycled materials and posted it on instructables.

However, due to the nature of this wind turbine hub and blades it didn't withstand environmental conditions like Sun and Wind.

It eventually broke. Now I've decided to build my new wind turbine.Also made from recycled materials and even easier to make.It's also made from stronger materials so it can last longer and withstand environmental conditions.Read all the story from here.

Last year I made TurbineOne , a completely recycled material wind turbine. Actually it was so simple and easy to make. But it was also so fragile due to the fact that its hub was made of compact discs CDs. As you can see in the photo, strong wind in one day has cracked the hub leaving the blades unconnected. The project was very inspiring and motivational. I've learned new stuff.

This year I wanted to make something more durable. With Simplicity and Recycling in mind I came up with a new idea of makinga wind turbine using ready made blades from an old fan. Here comes the concept idea behind TurbineOne V2.

Step 1: Concept

I've tested making this turbine setup in one of my previous instructable. I wanted to make a quick test for the concept.

Of course, it was something obvious and very straight forward but I wanted to really make sure that the wind is able to rotate the fan blades and resist the high motor torque.

I was in doubt because the motor had high rotation torque resistance. So I tried it in this instructable.

It worked excellent even in slow wind. I was really surprised and it made me more motivated to finish this wind turbine setup.

Step 2: Components

Here are the components for this project , you can see that nearly all of them are recycled materials :

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Today I found a great article about how to configure ESP8266 to connect to Arduino UNO in super simple steps and then connect them all to ThingSpeak website.

This article is a real treasure to anyone who wants to get started with ESP8266 and doesn't know where to start from.

What I liked the most about this article and what makes it so special

The author also clarifies the difference between ESP32 as the newer ESP module and the ESP8266 WIFI Module with basic function.

Another thing I liked about the article is a new trial the author has made and succeeded in doing it. This trial is by accessing ESP8266 WiFi Module directly but using Arduino UNO as a bridge. I've seen many other programmers and makers who used USB-to-TTL converters and made the task of configuring the module seem so hard. But this author has clarified the steps making it so simple and straightforward.

Another useful thing I've learned from this article is ThingSpeak. The IoT website that you can use to connect your application and then analyze your data using Matlab tools and all for free.

Monday, June 18, 2018

In this post I've found an interesting project to use with Arduino. This is a project where you can upload Arduino Sketches to your Arduino board via Bluetooth connection only.

This means that you only need to connect Arduino board to your PC or Laptop only once for first time programming and configuration and then use your Android Phone to write code, compile and then upload sketches to your Arduino directly via Bluetooth.

Success Story

The maker sure has a very successful story of making and designing. The concept is all built around the powerful Android application that does it all.The maker is so smart as he took the hardware open source approach with his concept. He has even designed his own Arduino Shield that made the same function and compatible with his application.The maker offers the application for free on Google Play Store with the availability to buy the Pro version of the app.

This step comes first to configure Arduino and Bluetooth module for the process.You need to upload the code to Arduino.This code contains several functions to change the parameters of Bluetooth HC-05 :

AT+NAME=Bluino#00 : Change name of bluetooth module, default name is "HC-05".

For additional you can change password to use not standard password while pairing, AT+PSWD=xxxx.

NoteName of bluetooth must "Bluino#00-9999", if you want custom name you should use the paid version of Bluino Loader App.

Connection

Note the capacitor and resistor connected between Arduino and Bluetooth. Those components are important for resetting Arduino after sketch upload finishes.

Setup Bluetooth HC-05

This is the step where you will run the code you uploaded to Arduino while the Bluetooth module is connected to Arduino.

Note this carefully. You need to force the Bluetooth module into AT command mode using these steps.Press and hold KEY button• Plug USB cable for powering Arduino• Wait about 5 second (still hold KEY button)• Unplug and re plug USB for reset from AT command mode

Install and run the application

The application looks like Arduino IDE

Here you can write, compile and then upload sketches to your Arduino project without having troubles connecting it to PC or Laptop.

Of course the first program that comes in mind when trying this method is the Blink example.

After installing the app you can open example sketch BluinoLoader/examples/02.Basic/Blink/Blink.ino

After all steps your Arduino will blink on led 13, and you can repeat all the steps to upload another sketch.Congratulations .. You have made your Bluetooth Programmable Ready Arduino project.Now you can write any code and then compile it and then upload it all using your smart Android.Thanks mansurkamsur. Keep going.